1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium housing device having a security mechanism for securely receiving a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical storage medium housing device includes an insertion slot to receive a storage medium that is created based on predetermined standards. The storage medium is housed in a housing cell of the storage medium housing device. Once the storage medium is housed in the housing cell, the storage medium housing device can transfer data stored in the storage medium to an external electronic device. The storage medium housing device internally includes a robot to convey the storage medium. Upon receiving predetermined operations, the robot first receives the storage medium that is housed in the housing cell, and then conveys the storage medium to a drive that carries out reading and writing of data with respect to the storage medium.
In a typical storage medium housing device, when the storage medium is inserted by a user from the insertion slot, the storage medium is received and housed only when the storage medium can be housed physically. For example, in a conventional magnetic tape device “ETERNUS F6476M/S tape device”, [online], [searched on Oct. 31, 2006], Internet (http://storage-system.fujitsu.com/jp/products/tape/f6476 ms/), an entire 36-track record keeping magnetic tape cartridge (conforming to International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 14251, (X) 6135, InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) 261-1996) that is inserted from the insertion slot is received and housed.
In the conventional magnetic tape device, the storage medium is received without checking a validity of the storage medium. In other words, the storage medium is received without checking, for example, whether the storage medium is manufactured by a guaranteed manufacturer, whether the storage medium is a genuine storage medium, or whether the storage medium includes a malicious code. Thus, security of the conventional magnetic tape device is not assured.
One approach could be to provide an external device near the housing cell that checks validity of storage medium and conveys only a valid storage medium to the storage medium housing device. Provision of such an external device, however, increases the overall size of the original storage medium housing unit.